Media releases

• Community invited to Brock Bazaar for student-run Day of Service

  Wednesday, August 31, 2016 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: R00178 – 25 August 2016

  A group of Brock University students are strengthening relationships with local community partners by hosting the first-ever Brock Bazaar during this year’s Brock Cares Day of Service.

  The Brock Leaders Citizenship Society (BLCS), one of two honour societies at Brock, is inviting community members and organizations to rummage through their home items and sell them on campus as part of the annual day of service on Saturday, Sept. 10.

  “We always have students out in the community, but this time we want to give people and organizations the opportunity to be on campus with our students and see the great things Brock does for Niagara,” said BLCS member and project lead Megan Brown.

  Tables at the Bazaar are available for $15, with all proceeds funding Alternative Reading Week bursaries for Brock students. Community members will keep what they make from selling their items. Activities for kids and families, a BBQ and cotton candy, as well as crafts and face painting will also be taking place throughout the day.

  The Bazaar is one of several events taking place on Brock Cares Day of Service, with hundreds of students heading out to 22 different community organizations in Grimsby, St. Catharines, Thorold, Welland, Port Colborne and Niagara Falls to participate in Brock’s largest service day.

  Organized by Student Life and Community Experience and the Brock University Students’ Union, Brock Cares “provides students the opportunity to get involved and make a difference in Niagara,” said community outreach and volunteer co-ordinator Sarah Salt.

  “We hope this event will allow students to foster connections within the local community.”

  Brock Cares Day of Service saw 128 students volunteer within 14 organizations in 2014, completing more than 800 service hours. Due to inclement weather, the event was cancelled in 2015.

  To participate in Brock Cares, visit experiencebu.brocku.ca. To purchase a table for the Brock Bazaar, visit brockbazaar.eventbrite.com

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock education course to use nature as classroom

  Wednesday, August 31, 2016 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 00176 – 23 August 2016
   

  This fall, a Brock University class is leaving their desks behind and heading outside to learn.

  Professors Debra Harwood, from the Faculty of Education and Mary Breunig from the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, are offering a Masters of Education course — ECE-Learning/Teaching in the Woods — outdoors in the woods. The entire course will be taught outside.

  “I think as educators we all need to come to the realization that learning happens everywhere and anywhere; learning happens when students are connected and vested with the material and spaces in which they inhabit,” says Harwood. “Educating outdoors is exciting; full of risk and one has to be open to the type of lateral–flexible thinking that is required.”

  The idea to host the course entirely in the woods evolved from Harwood’s year-long research project with young children being educated outdoors. In this project, Harwood led a team of researchers in exploring the play, learning and developmental benefits of a forest school program for young children.

  In Year Two of the study, the team will investigate the ways in which teaching and learning are enacted in various nature-based programs.

  “Last year, the three to five year olds and their teachers had an amazing time exploring, investigating and experiencing all that nature had to offer,” says Harwood. “I wanted to offer this type of experience to graduate students in the Faculty of Education as well.”

  The course will explore topics such as risk, sustainability, nature-culture binaries, place-based learning and teaching by immersing the students fully in nature. In addition, Harwood hopes the class will foster better theory-practice connections (e.g. experiential learning), develop and apply an inquiry mindset, critically evaluate the literature on outdoor learning, and connect students’ body-mind-spirits in their own learning processes.

  The course will also feature a cross-collaboration with the undergraduate Outdoor and Environmental Education class led by Breunig.

  “It’s all pretty exciting and I look forward to seeing what unfolds in the woods,” says Harwood. “The woods, like the course, will be somewhat unpredictable and offer us all a few surprises along the way, but experiencing the woods first hand is key to fostering a climate where some of the dominant discourses that shape education can be critiqued.”

  The class will be heading outdoors Tuesday mornings throughout the fall.
  For more information contact dharwood@brocku.ca

  For assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases